By the initiation of emancipation all possible desire or tendency in that direction would be removed, and thus a severe blow be given to the Rebellion.
On the record
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine suggests that initiating emancipation would undermine the Rebellion's motivations.
Share
More from James Blaine
The need of action and of energy so pressed upon him that he found no time to utter lamentation, none to indulge even in the most sacred personal grief.
In my judgment our sole authority for the acts which we have done during the last four years was the authority communicated to Congress by the Constitution to suppress insurrection.
The haste with which the question was brought to a decision can hardly be justified, and is a striking illustration of the intense party-feeling which had been engendered by the war.
The two schools in short marked the dividing line between the radical and the conservative.





